The central and state governments are consistently working on various schemes, services, and programs to improve the quality of lives of people. However, the benefits of these schemes don’t get distributed properly among the beneficiaries due to various reasons primarily suspicious activities of middlemen, corruption, etc.
To eliminate this from scratch, the Finance Minister of India announced that most of the central and state govt schemes will now work under the mechanism of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). This is being done to reduce and eventually eliminate corruption from the scratch.
Read the article to learn more about the recent announcement, the why behind it, and how will it change the current landscape of govt schemes.
Uprise Of DBT
Recently, the Finance Minister of India, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman announced that out of 1200 central and state govt schemes, 1100 will now be under the mechanism of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) managed by the Public Financial Management System (PFMS). With the help of Direct Benefit Transfer, funds through the schemes are directly deposited into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.
Sitharaman said, "Everything is going via direct payment, so there are no middlemen, no unborn children getting allowances. Everybody who receives funds has a biometrically verified account into which the money goes. So 1100 of the 1200 central and state schemes are under DBT".
The Finance Minister made the DBT announcement at the celebrations for the 49th Civil Accounts Day. She also highlighted the workings of the Public Financial Management System (PFMS) as it is the major body that helped the govt in devising the concept of Direct Benefit Transfer.
About PFMS
The Public Financial Management System is a digital platform created to manage the funds released under various govt schemes and services. It supervises the functioning of Direct Benefit Transfer and ensures that people get the funds deposited directly in their bank accounts.
Some of its key features that one should know about are mentioned below in brief points for one’s reference:
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It is one of the largest financial systems in the world which caters to a population of around 60 crore beneficiaries.
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PFMS aims to make financial transactions much more efficient and transparent to reduce the rate of corruption.
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The digital platform works with over 250 other systems such as the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN), PM-KISAN, Tax Information Network (TIN 2.0), etc.
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PFMS interacts with around 31 state treasuries and over 40 lakh program-implementing agencies. It is also connected with over 650 banks and other financial entities in both, the public and private sectors.
Conclusion
The recent decision of the government to connect most of the central and state govt schemes to the operations of Direct Benefit Transfer is a wise move. This would help the govt not only reduce the rate of corruption but also ensure that all the beneficiaries of the schemes receive their rightful share without any delay or unnecessary and unexplained deductions.
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